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The present invention disclosed herein relates generally to an emergency evacuation system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an emergency evacuation reporting system and method for automatically reporting an evacuation status from an affected area to a command center.
Despite great strides in science and technology in the last half of this century, handling of an emergency situation in a building occupied by many people remain at practically the same rudimentary level as before. Moreover, an increase of multi-storied buildings in the cities around the world has exacerbated the problemxe2x80x94due to their size, the high-rise buildings may create logistics nightmares during the evacuation proceedings.
When a fire alert or a bomb threat is announced via a PA system, an alarm, etc., building occupants of each floor proceed to the nearest exit, hopefully, in an orderly fashion, as previously rehearsed during emergency or fire drills. In a business setting, for example, people occupying the building select evacuation wardens to be assigned to each floor to conduct the evacuation proceedings. When the last person leaves the floor, a respective evacuation warden calls the command center to report on the status of the evacuation. The evacuation warden may report the area clear or request additional help, if needed, using a fire telephone system assigned for such use only.
There are several disadvantages associated with the above evacuation reporting procedure. The fire telephone system becomes overloaded as many evacuation wardens may attempt to reach the command center at the same time. Hence, some status evacuation reports may be missed or garbled. In addition, the evacuation warden has to wait for an operator to answer the telephone. Then, the evacuation warden has to report the situation to the operator and to confirm that the report is properly acknowledged at the command center. This procedure may take excessive time in requesting assistance of an emergency response team for example, and may jeopardize the lives of building occupants and evacuation warden.
A need therefore exists for an emergency evacuation reporting system and method that overcome the above, as well as other, disadvantages of the conventional evacuation procedure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an emergency evacuation reporting system and method.
It is another object of the present invention to provide the emergency evacuation reporting system and method for automatically reporting an evacuation status of the affected area to a command center.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide the emergency evacuation reporting system and method for automatically requesting the assistance in an emergency situation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide the emergency evacuation reporting system and method for automatically acknowledging receipt of the evacuation status of the affected area by the command center.
The above and other objects are achieved by an emergency evacuation reporting system for handling an evacuation of people from an affected area in a facility. The inventive system includes an emergency switch for generating a signal to indicate that people have been evacuated from the affected area. According to the inventive system, the emergency switch is located in the affected area. Further included in the inventive system is an indicator remotely located from the emergency switch for visually confirming the evacuation of people from the affected area in response to the generated signal.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the indicator visually indicates an emergency situation in response to the generated signal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the emergency switch includes a light that is activated only if the remotely located indicator visually indicates the emergency situation in the affected area.